The Sibyls were legendary ancient Greek prophetesses whose unsolicited oracular pronouncements were written, as epic and didactic poetry usually were also, in dactylic hexameter verse. Among the Greeks in classical and Hellenistic times the Sibyls were held in prestige second only to Apollo’s oracle at Delphi. At the same time, Sibylline oracles were accorded even higher honors in Rome: an officially sanctioned collection of them was kept in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, where they were consulted in times of emergency by a board of certified interpreters, the quindecemviri.[2]

The earliest extant reference to Sibylline prophecy, from Heraclitus (6th/5th century bce) as quoted in Plutarch’s De Pythiae Oraculis (1st century ce), mentions only one Sibyl, and already she is a shadowy figure of hoary antiquity: “Think of the elegance of Sappho’s songs, that so charm and fascinate the listener! Σίβυλλαδὲ μαινομένῳ στόματικαθ’ Ἡράκλειτον ἀγέλαστακαὶ ἀκαλλώπιστακαὶ ἀμύρισταφθεγγομένηχιλίων ἐτῶν ἐξικνεῖται τῇ φωνῇ διὰ τὸν θεόν/And contrast the Sibyl, who, from her madwoman’s lips, as Heraclitus tells us, speaks words without laughter, without adornment, without perfume, and reaches through a thousand years with her voice because of the god”.[3] The exact extent of the quotation is unclear — does it include μαινομένῳ στόματι/“from her madwoman’s lips” and does it run from ἀγέλαστα/“without laughter” to φθεγγομένη/“who speaks” or to τὸν θεόν/“the god” or to somewhere in between? — but even if we assign the reference to a thousand years to Plutarch, the Sibyl will still already have been only a figure of hearsay to Heraclitus, as she clearly was also to Aristophanes and Plato.[4]

My CV

Blessed to be here . . .

I found out . . . !

. . . by taking the "Which Church Father Are You?" quiz . . .

. . . I’m an Origen!

"You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity . . . well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears."

That's what it says, anyway, and it must be true, since it explains so well why I turned up in the vicinity of Gandhi and the Dalai Lama when I took the (also eerily accurate) Political Compass quiz a while back.